It was a celebration fit for a king as the Prince George Spruce Kings dished out the hardware at their 5th Annual Player Awards Banquet and Auction from the Ramada Hotel on Sunday.
The evening touched on the BCHL club’s many accomplishments over the 2017-18 season, most notably their first Mainland Division title since joining the league 21 years ago.
Great goaltending has been at the forefront of the Spruce Kings season and 20-year-old Evan DeBrouwer was named as the Team MVP.
DeBrouwer ranks fourth in the BCHL with a 2.28 GAA and a .917 save percentage trailing only Adam Scheel (Penticton Vees) and the dyanmic duo from the Vernon Vipers Ty Taylor and Anthony Yamnitsky.
Prince George also recognized the efforts of captain Kyle Johnson not only for his work on the ice, but off of it as well collecting the Community Champion Award.
“It’s really important to me, I never thought as a young player coming into to junior hockey that would mean so much to me and it’s one of the things that’s taken me by surprise really and I’m very grateful that I’ve had these opportunities and that I’ve been given roles to be involved heavily in the community work and it’s really brightened my life and I hope I have done the same for other people.”
He believes the Spruce Kings have come a long way in short order since he joined the organization three years ago.
“It’s been incredible really, we’ve come a long way from being a bottom feeder team that was struggling and have really developed into a group of guys that are going to pass forward a legacy with the Spruce Kings being a great team for years to come.”
“I think it has really started with the work of Mike Hawes and Adam Maglio has started that emotion.”
The Spruce Kings for the most part have been able to stay injury-free with the exception of Ben Poisson who suffered a seperated shoulder and ruptured spleen two weeks ago.
Eight players have played in all 55 games up to this point including Ben Brar, Dustin Manz, Patrick Cozzi, Liam Watson-Brawn, Jarod Hovde, Dylan Anhorn, Nolan Welsh and Chays Ruddy.
The Top Scorer Award for Prince George when to sophomore forward Ethan de Jong who leads the team with 62 points.
Both DeBrouwer and Anhorn were unable to attend due to NCAA recruiting trips.
Spruce Kings will open the playoffs at home on March 2nd and 3rd with their opponent to be determined.